Rotary engine.



No. 854,346.- PATENT'ED MAY 21, 1907.

A. GHIRA.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 28, 1907.

Fig.3.

Witnesses. 6 k m I rut uamns PETER: cm, WASHINGTON, v.12

ANDREA GHIRA, OF TRIESTE, AUSTRIA-HUN GARY.

ROTARY ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 21, 1907.

Application filed March 28,1907. Serial No. 365,077.

To ail wiwm it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ANDREA GHIRA, a sub ject of the Emperor of Austria, residing at Trieste, in the Empire of Austrial iungary, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements in Rotary Engines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it' appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

With all rotary engines hitherto used, it has not been possible to keep the working chambers permanently fluid tight. In most cases the inevitable wear of the parts in rubbing contact cannot be compensated for at all; the engines therefore, owing to the working-chambers commencing to leak, become very soon unfit for use. Various means have been proposed for compensating the wear of rotary engines, which however in no case were applicable to all places which require to be fluid tight. Usually such compensating means comprise an adjustment of the worn parts, these adjustments however being accompanied by loss of work, for the pressure of the screws is either greater than necessary to withstand the inner pressure, whereby much work is lost by friction or it .is insufficient and loss of the working fluid occurs. With other systems the pressure acting on the working parts is eccentric, consequently the wear is irregular, and a tightening cannot be effected even by readjustment of the parts.

The present invention relates to a rotary engine wherein all rotating parts are concentrio, no eccentric force being therefore experienced, and wherein all packings of the working chambers irrespectively of the wear of the parts in rubbing contact, are always subject to a constant pressure, the degree of which can be ascertained. with sufficient accuracy. This is achieved: (1) By arranging a cover, which, by means of a variable pres sure symmetrically distributed and corresponding to the inner pressure of the driving fluid, is pressed against the packing edges of the rotating cylinder. (2) By adapting the cylinder to be moved in the direction of the axis, whereby the pressure exerted on ling edge.

one ackin ed e of the c linder is transb O y ferred almost unchanged to the other pack- (3) By arranging packing strips which are under a constant and elastic force, to the projections or pistons of the cylinder; (4) By arranging slides,-the packing-plates of which are firmly pressed against the rims of the slots with which the casing is provided and also radially against the inner rotating cylinder always with a constant elastic force irrespectively of the wear of the plate.

The accompanying drawings illustrate a rotary engine according to the invention. Figure 1 being a sectional elevation, the upper half being a vertical and the lower half a horizontal section. Fig. 2 is a side view of the engine. Figs. 3 and 4 are cross sections along the lines IIIIII and IVIV of Fig. 1. respectively. Fig. 5 is a cross section along the line VV of Fig. 1 looking toward the left. Fig. 6 is an end view looking from the left. The Figs. 7, 8 and 9, 10 show two details of the engine in different sections.

The engine consists of two cylinders arranged concentrically one within the other, the outer one or fixed part 1, forming the casing, the inner one 2, rotating with the shaft 3. The cylinder 2, is mounted on the shaft 3, by means of a boss, between the latter and the cylinder 2, rollers 4 and balls 5, being suitably carried by the boss of the shaft to permit a side-movement of the cylinder 2, but to prevent however every other movement in relation to the shaft. The cylinder 2, at two diametrically opposite positions is provided with prismatic projections 6, which act as pistons and which are fitted with elastically mounted packing strips 7, to efiect a tightening of the working spaces. The object of the lever mechanism 8 (Figs. 1, 7 and 8) is to permit of only a parallel movement of the packing strips 7. A further tightening of the working chambers is effected by means of packing plates 10, fixed to the prismatic and preferably wedge-shaped slides 9. These plates have bent up ends each provided with a pin 11, which with some play fits into a recess at the front end of the slides; the plates 1.0 can therefore be moved in relation to the slide 9 by the amount of this play. The slides are moved by the fly wheel 12 mounted on the shaft and provided with a cam slot 13 shaped accordingly, in which rollers 14 resting on balls are free to move. The movement of the cranks carrying the rollers 14 is determined by the shape of the cam-slot and is transmitted by means of the crankshafts 16 to the forks 17 belonging thereto, which actuate the rods 18 running in suitable guides and entering the slides. The inner ends of the rods 18 are provided with cross pins 19, which fit with slight play into recesses of the slides 9 (Fig. 1). When the slides are opening the rods 18 are first moved which by the action of the springs 20 (Figs. 1 and 3) slide in an outward direction by a small amount corresponding to the amount of play for the pins 19; the slide 9, then commences to move and soon the packing plates 10 move radially in an outward direction. WVhen closing however, first the packing plates are forced inwardly and in a radial direction against the cylinder 2 by means of the springs 21 and the elastic force is determined in such a manner that the cylinder is thereby made sufficiently tight on its circumferential face. By means of the springs 20, which are considerably stronger than the springs 21 and which therefore come into effect later than these, the slides are then pressed against the plates, whereby the working spaces are made tight along the rims of the casing.

A tightening on the side is effected by the cover 22 which with a pressure changeable according to the inner steam pressure is forced against the rim or flank of the cylinder. Due to the cylinder 2, being movable in the direction of the axis, the pressure exerted on one side of the cylinder is also transmitted to the other side, so that at any moment both sides are exposed to almost the same pressure. The shaft 3 is provided with a hollow portion 23 containing a piston 24, the space 23 by means of a small flexible pipe 25, being constantly in communication with one of the working chambers. The inner steam pressure changing during a rotation of the engine is then by means of the piston 24, transmitted to a cone 26, supported by the piston rod and pressing against two levers 28, pivoted at 27. The free ends of the levers engage levers 3O pivoted at 29 (Figs. 5 and 6) and these in turn transmit the pressure by means of the regulating screws 31, and the thrust rods 32 to the movable cover 22. The position of the points of contact between the cone 26 and the levers 28, provided with conical rollers is altered at every point of the cycle (half revolution of the engine) the pressure exerted by the lever 28 depends up on the degree of pressure acting on the piston 24 and upon the length of the inner arm of the lever 28. The inner pressure (upon the piston) however taking place according to a certain law, it is thus possible to ascertain the length of the inner arm for every point of the cycle, when the condition is made, that at any moment the outer pressure shall be equal to the inner pressure. Consequently the points of contact are ascertained with this view and two curves 34 and 35 on the cone 26 are obtained which form the curves of contact between the cone 26 and the levers 28. Along these curves the cone 26 is provided with one ridge each. It is however preferable to increase the outer-pressure slightly and by such an amount as it is necessary in order to insure the sealing of the flanks.

The engine is reversible, that is to say, it can run in both directions. The steam enters through the inlet pipe 36, is distributed in the casing thereby reaching the inlet valves 37. According to the direction of movement two of the four existing valves 37 are working viz., the two diametrically opposite to each other, the other two remain at rest. The valves are operated by the flywheel, which for this purpose is provided with two projections 39 (Figs. 1, 9, 10) situated opposite to each other, the length of each projection corresponding with the period of inlet and each projection pressing in turn on levers attached to the valves, to open the latter. The levers of the valves which are not working are turned inwardly (Fig. 9) and will then be situated out of the path of the projections 39. The entering steam first presses with full pressure and then under expansion upon the projections 6 forming the pistons causing the cylinder 2 to revolve. An exhaust is effected through the slots or openings 40, two of which are diametrically opposite to each other and not used in a certain direction of movement can be closed by means of a slide 41 (Figs. 1 and 4), the latter being reversed by means of a hand-lever 42. The steam passes through the two respective slots through the exhaust chamber and the exhaust pipe 44 into the atmosphere. When altering the direction of rotation of the engine, the direction of rotation of the cone 26 would also have to be changed. It has been assumed that in a certain direction of rotation the cone 26 will revolve with the shaft 3; for this certain direction the required additional pressure on the cover 22 is thereby achieved. If however the turning direction of the engine is altered it would also be necessary as may easily be seen, to turn the curves 34, 35 about the symmetrical line by 108 into the position indicated in Fig. 6 by dotted line, in other words, as soon as the direction of rota tion of the engine is altered, the curves shown dotted must be put into action so that the same effect may be produced. The same effect is however obtained if at the commencement of half a revolution, that is when the levers 28 touch the starting points of the curves 34, 35 the turning direction of the cone 26 is reversed in such a manner that it is running with the same angular velocity but in the opposite direction to the shaft 3. In order to effect this, a disk 45 is keyed to the end of the shaft 3 while a spur wheel 46 is mounted loosely on it. Another spur wheel 47 is firmly connected. to the shaft 3, the former gearing with the double spur wheel 48 attached to the outside of the fixed cover of the casing. The spur wheel 46 is thus turned in a direction opposite to that of shaft 3. The number of teeth or the gearing is chosen in such a manner that the angular velocity of the spur wheel 46 will be equal to that of shaft 3. The cone 26 by means of the pawl 49, can be connected either to the disk 45 or to the spur wheel 46. The pawl 49 is arranged at that point of the cone 26, at which also lies the starting point of the curve 34 and the two slots 50, 51 in the spur wheel 46 or disk- 45 respectively and with which the pawl engages, therefore always meet at the same point, so that an alteration of the direction of rotation of the cone can only take place at the beginning of the curves 34 35. In order to alter the direction of rotation of the engine it will then be necessary to reverse 1) the levers of the inlet valves 37 (2) the slides 41 and (3) the pawl 49.

The curved ridges 34, 35 may also be arranged by the rolling cones held by the pressure transmitting levers 28.

I claim 1. In a rotary engine, the combination with a casing, of a rotatable member laterally movable therein, a packing member, and means to adjust the latter operated by the variation of pressure of the working fluid.

2. In a rotary engine, the combination with a closed casing of a rotatable cylinder laterally movable therein, a packing member mounted in the casing and means operated by the variation of pressure of the working fluid to press the packing member against the cylinder.

' 3. In a rotary engine, the combination with a closed cylindrical easing, of a concentric rotatable cylinder laterally movable therein, a movable packing ring at one end of the cylinder, radially movable slides pro jecting through the casing in contact with the cylinder forming working chambers, pistons carried by the cylinder, and means operated by the variation of pressure of the working "fluid to press the packing ring against the end of the cylinder.

4. In a rotary engine, the combination with a closed cylindrical casing, of a rotatable cylinder concentrically mounted therein, pistons onthe cylinder, radially movable slides projecting through the casing forming separate working chambers therein, a movable packing member interposed between one end of the cylinder and the casing, a shaft, and

cylinder thereon.

5. In a reversible rotary engine, the combination with a closed cylindrical casing, of a laterally movable rotatable cylinder mounted therein forming a working chamber, a shaft journaled in the casing having a chamber therein, means connecting the shaft and cylinder, means connecting the working chamber and shaft chamber, a movable packing member at one end of the cylinder, a retatable cone, means in the shaft chamber controlling said cone, mechanism connecting the cone and packing member, means operated by the shaft to rotate the cone and means to maintain the rotation of the cone in the same direction when the engine is reversed.

6. In a rotary engine, the combination with a closed cylindrical casing, of a laterally movable cylinder concentrically mounted therein forming an annular working cham ber, a shaft having a chamber therein, means connecting the cylinder and shaft, pistons on the cylinder, radially movable sliding members projecting through slots formed .in the casing engaging the periphery of the cylin- (ler, a packing member for the cylinder movably mounted in the casing, means connecting the working chamber and the shaft chamber, a piston in the latter, levers connected with the packing member and mechanism controlled by the piston to operate the levers.

7. I11 a rotary engine, the combination with a closed cylindrical casing, of a laterally movable rotatable cylinder concentrically mounted therein forming an annular working chamber, a shaft j ournaled in the casing having a chamber therein, means connecting the shaft-and cylinder, pistons on the periphery of the latter in contact with the casing, radially movable slides dividing the working chamber, a movable packing member at one end of the cylinder, means connecting the working chamber and the shaft chamber, a piston in the latter, a rotatable cone connected with the piston having curved ridges formed thereon, levers having bearing roll ers riding on said ridges, and means connecting the levers and packing member.

8. In a rotary engine, the combination with a closed. cylindrical casing, of a laterally movable rotatable cylinder concentrically mounted therein forming an annular working chamber, a shaft journaled in the casing having a chamber therein, means connecting the shaft and cylinder,pistons on the periphcry of the latter in contact with the casing,

radially movable slides dividing the working chamber, a movable packing member at one end of the cylinder. means connecting the Working chamber and the shaft chamber, a In testimony that I claim the foregoing as p1ston1n the latter, arotatable cone connect my lnvention, I have slgned my name 111 ed wlth the plston having curved ridges presence of tWo subscribing Witnesses.

formed thereon, levers having bearing rollers ANDREA GHIRA. rldmg on sald rulges, means connectlng the lVltnesses: levers and packmg member and means 0per- R0131. \V. HEINGARTNER,

ated by the shaft to rotate the cone. VINCENT BURES. 

